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Here are answers to some of the questions you may have about using
Dobson Educational Services. If you have
further questions please email them to jpd@dobconsult.com.
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| What
is an educational consultant? |
An educational consultant’s job is to assist a family in one of its
most important tasks: choosing the right school for a child. Consultants
may have different backgrounds ~ many are former educators or
educational psychologists ~ but they all provide families with these
essential areas of expertise:
- Identifying a child’s educational needs.
- Finding the schools or programs that best serve those needs.
- Guiding the student and family through the process of searching
for and selecting the right placement.
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| Who
uses your services? |
Generally, families seek my help at a time of transition in a child’s
educational life, such as:
- Beginning school at Kindergarten (or earlier).
- Moving to a new area.
- Changing from public to private school.
- Selecting a boarding school.
- Responding to diagnosed special needs such as ADHD or dyslexia,
emotional and behavioral difficulties.
- Needing to change schools for academic or personal reasons.
At Dobson Educational Services, I work with students in
elementary, middle, and high schools, and mostly with families who are
considering private schools.
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| Why
do I need a consultant? Can't I read directories, get brochures, and
arrange visits on my own? |
| Of course, and many families do. You’ll find links to some of the
best directories, both local and national, right here at
this website. But you may find that you need the advice and perspective
of someone who knows about children and how they learn,
and someone who has visited the schools
and knows the
realities of their programs and their culture.
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| Are
your services expensive? |
| I charge an hourly rate that is
comparable to the charges of educational psychologists and other child development
specialists in the Philadelphia area. At the first meeting with the
family, we decide
together whether the family will pay me on a case basis or on an hourly
basis. I can arrange a sliding scale, if necessary.
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| Do
schools pay you to refer students to them? |
 Absolutely not. I am an
independent consultant and a
member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association
(IECA),
committed to the association’s Principles of Good Practice.
My clients are the students and the families, and my commitment is to
find the program that is the best fit for each student.
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| Do you
do your own testing? |
Dobson Educational Services is a testing center for the
Secondary
School Admission Test (SSAT).
Group testing
sessions are run during the fall and winter, and individual test
administration by request throughout the year. For further
psychological or educational testing, I refer families to qualified
educational psychologists whose work I know and trust.
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| How
do you know about all these schools and special programs? |
| A good deal of my time is spent traveling and visiting schools,
locally, nationally and occasionally abroad. On average, I travel to
visit schools at least a week each month, either on my own or with
groups of consultants. It’s important for me to have a “feel” for a school and to have a personal relationship with
the admissions people. I follow the progress of
each child I place for a full year, receiving copies of all school reports, visiting on
campus if possible and consulting with the family if necessary.
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